Bible Study Blog – The Book of Mark, Chapters 11-15
Mark 11:12-14, 20-21
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. 14 Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!”And the disciples heard him say it.
20 The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. 21 Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”
a “curse” was a pronouncement of judgment upon a person or object (cf. Mt. 25:41). In this case, there was a command miracle by which Christ spoke words that would cause this tree to die. It was not a purposeless act of intemperance. It represented a strong object-lesson that the disciples needed to learn (and numerous others since that time as well).
Alfred Edersheim has called attention to the fact that “in Palestine the fruit appears before the leaves . . .” (The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947, Vol. II, p. 374; emp. WJ). Thus, to see a leafed fig tree (even at an unseasonable time — v. 13b), warranted the assumption that there would be fruit on the tree. But this tree was an oddity; the leaves were there, but it was fruitless. This phenomenon, therefore, served as a perfect “visual aid” for an important lesson that the Savior wished to teach.
Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, through all the generations
you have been our home!
2 Before the mountains were born,
before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
from beginning to end, you are God.
3 You turn people back to dust, saying,
“Return to dust, you mortals!”
4 For you, a thousand years are as a passing day,
as brief as a few night hours.
5 You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.
They are like grass that springs up in the morning.
6 In the morning it blooms and flourishes,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
7 We wither beneath your anger;
we are overwhelmed by your fury.
8 You spread out our sins before you—
our secret sins—and you see them all.
9 We live our lives beneath your wrath,
ending our years with a groan.
Without going deeper into what Jesus message was, it was a reference back to the Jews when he cursed (pronounced judgment on) the fig tree.
Mark 11:15-19 NLT
15 When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,16 and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. 17 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
18 When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.
19 That evening Jesus and the disciples left the city.
20 The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. 21 Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”
Hosea 9:16a
New Living Translation (NLT)
16 The people of Israel are struck down.
Their roots are dried up,
and they will bear no more fruit.
Mark 11:22-24 – Jesus was speaking of a specific mountain.
22 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
Matthew 17:20 New Living Translation (NLT)
20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.
There is a mountain in Bethlehem called the Herodian where Herod built one of his great palaces. Herod was known for his extravagance and power. When Herod built this magnificent palace, he forced his slaves to make two hills into one huge mountain. Herod literally moved a mountain to create his palace. Some even said Herod desired his palace to be taller than the temple mount, as to display his power over God’s. The people of that day were surely amazed that Herod could build a mountain. When Jesus said, “You can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move,” Jesus was revealing that His power is greater than any world power. The Herodian represented the world power of that day.
Matthew 12: 18-27 NLT –Discussion about Resurrection
18 Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: 19 “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.[d] 20 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. 21 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her.22 This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. 23 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”
24 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 25 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.
26 “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[f] 27 So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”
#1. The Sadducees believed there was no resurrection.
#2. The Sadducees rejected everything except the Old Testament
#3. “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures…” and then the resulting state of mind from not knowing the scriptures, “…and you don’t know the power of God.”
From this we can surmise the problem the Sadducees had was not enough information. They were taking the scriptures lightly and not studying them to “know the power of God”.
“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
“You have, you must, you gotta have an understanding of who God is and how God acts based on all Scripture and not taking verses from here and there to build a theology of God.
#4. There is a Resurrection
#4. We are like the angels in that we will not reproduce there. We will not have a need to marry, we will not have sex there.
#5. We will love all people equally and we will love God immanently.
#6. Many references in scripture where people had died and gone to heaven and they were still the same person. We will know each other there.
Mark 14:66-72 Cock-Crow
66 Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below. One of the servant girls who worked for the high priest came by 67 and noticed Peter warming himself at the fire. She looked at him closely and said, “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth.”
68 But Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, and he went out into the entryway. Just then, a rooster crowed.
69 When the servant girl saw him standing there, she began telling the others, “This man is definitely one of them!” 70 But Peter denied it again.
A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.”
71 Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed the second time.
Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he broke down and wept.
Note of interest concerning the rooster crowing twice.
The Cock Crow and what is it?
The cock crow has been thought of as being a rooster crowing and that is the interpretations of many of our bible translations. I believe this is a mistake. Jewish law forbids chickens in the Holy City. The hour of 3am was called the cock crow. The sign of the changing of the guard at 3am was signaled by the blowing of the trumpet. The word for trumpet call in Latin is “gullicinium”, which means cock-crow. The reason that there would have been two blowing of the trumpets is to cover the city by blowing the trumpet in two directions. The Romans divided each day into three-hour segments and the ones at night were called watches. The first night watch started at 6pm. Mark 13:35 says watch because you don’t know if the master will come at the midnight watch, or the cock-crowing, or in the morning.
Hopefully this will give you a good understanding of the cosk-crow.